Calling it domination is a bit of an exaggeration. But they were definitely the better team for most of the first half. But in the the end, the US was clearly the better team.
Yes, I posted that at halftime, and every major commentator, including the ones calling the game, agreed with me.
I’m not sure what you are saying here, The USA were ahead on stats and ahead on the scoreline as well. Isn’t that what you’d expect?
I posted that after a series of comments about how the Aussies were dominating the game. The stats, the score, and what little I saw of the game didn’t match up with those comments.
Ah, gotcha.
Agreed.
Since GunsNSpot doesn’t seem to be here, I guess I’d better fill in:
Other than that, not horrible refereeing in that game, at least the first half that I saw. But of course, the one bad call decided the match, so there is that.
US-Aus officiating wasn’t great but wasn’t disastrous – called very tight (too tight, IMHO, but within acceptable range I guess) when there was a battle for possession, but ignored a few big things (Australian forward deliberately running into and pushing over a US defender watching a ball go out of bounds was one I noticed; referee might have figured the goal kick was a better result for the US than a free kick from the touch line, but if you’re calling everything else very tight, you really shouldn’t let someone get away with that). With the benefit of slow-mo replay, the second US yellow was probably undeserved, but I think it looked worse in real time, so only a minorly bad call.
The world of women’s sport is catching up to the example set by the USA, Canada, and countries in western and northern Europe (where there is in general greater freedom and opportunity for women), and Brazil where the sport is so imbued as part of the culture for both genders.
Many (most, if we’re honest) nations still have cultures where it is still considered inappropriate at best for women to be serious athletes, but that is slowly changing even in the most misogynist countries. The quality of coaching and training for some of these up-and-coming women’s teams has improved noticeably.
I was very impressed with the improved quality of Nigeria and Australia in particular.
I would actually agree with you. I found the USWNT disappointing. Lots of defensive lapses, lots of silly giveaways.
Also I’m glad Morgan found her way on the pitch. Hopefully she’s ok to start against Sweden because Wamback needs to be on the bench (and come on late to poach a goal - kind of like Klose in the last men’s WC)
The US played a respectable first game. They had some spots where they looked a bit shaky, but Australia IS a Top 10 team. While I realize the matchup between the number 2 team in the world vs. the number 10 team in the world is proabably alot different between the men’s and the women’s game, the US weren’t playing a scrimmage against the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Indeed, Australia were tough. In the end, I still think it was a fair result.
The Football Australia recap of the match is interesting.
The US’s nickname should be “after a slow start”. But in the end they pretty clearly deserved the win.
One thing I have noticed about USA women is they look a bit retro in terms of tactics and playing style. They seem to resemble the US men’s team circa 1994. The other better teams seem to have a more modern style of play.
I’ll agree with this. Wambach is not quite the player of 4 years ago, but she is still good. The big problem with her is how the team plays when she is in. It seems the first thing that they look for is the high ball to Wambach. It is even worse on set pieces, where it seems every free and corner kick is a high looping pass toward Wambach at the far post. Usually with four defenders surrounding her. If they would use her as a decoy, or to have her flick it on, they would probably be much more successful.
We have poor coaching. We think we are better than others and fall behind. Same thing in basketball.
Who won again? Who got the laussie again?
Caitlin Murray of the Guardian shares your concerns. It’s interesting to ponder where the USWNT’s ultimate place in the football world will be. Despite our little bit of head start, are we fated to trail the Europeans and South Americans here, too?
The USMNT is not trailing the Euros and SAns. We finished ahead of England in our group in WC 2010. We have advanced out of group stage 4 of the last 6 WCs. Aside from the true giants like Germany Brazil Italy and Argentina we have a fine record.
Oops…misread USWNT as USMNT.
I think the USA still has a big advantage in that soccer is far more established as a participation sport for women than just about everywhere else and it has infrastructure to create elite-level players. The problem seems to be that it needs to modernize its coaching.
USA men’s soccer has a problem developing higher level players, if you compare to England who have a lot of their own problems man-for-man England still have better players.
However despite the fact that US fans tend to bemoan the fact their team doesn’t play slick possession football, tactically I think the USMNT have been in quite a healthy place since learning quite a harsh lesson in 2006. In 2009 they were the team that ended Spain’s unbeaten run and I think the tactics that Bob Bradley used then influenced other teams looking to counter the tika-taka of Spain and Barcelona. The only games where England have looked tactically sound is against low-level opposition.